Days Of Reckoning At Hand For Pilots

WARNER HESSLER

This could be the most important week in the history of minor league baseball on the Peninsula.

This could be the week that owner Jay Acton pulls the plug on the life support system that has kept pro baseball alive in War Memorial Stadium.

And this could be the week residents of Hampton and Newport News turn their backs and let it happen.

From all indications, it's going to take a movement the size of the recent uprising in China to convince Acton that he should keep the Peninsula Pilots of the Carolina League in the Hampton stadium for another season.

When the Pilots return home Wednesday night for a four-game series against Kinston, all eyes will be on the parking lots.

If the lots start filling around 6:15 p.m., and are full by the time the first pitch is thrown 45 minutes later, baseball in Hampton has a chance.

But if the parking lots are barren by game time, as has been the case for most of the last 10 years, the clean and comfortable 41-year-old stadium could lock its gates for good when the 1989 season ends.

"There's no question that this will be the biggest series of the year," said young General Manager John Tull of the Pilots.

"A decision will be made by June 30 whether to stick it out here another season or leave. We can't let this situation go on much longer."

The situation, as Tull calls it, is this:

The Pilots have sold just 39 season tickets, 25 sign boards and stand to lose about $200,000 this season. The team, which needs to average about 500 fans per game, has averaged just 163 and is destined to be last among the 180 minor league franchises in attendance.

Acton did not buy the Pilots to run for several years and sell for a nice profit. Nor is he papering the area with free or cut-rate tickets.

"We're selling things for cash," said Acton, which probably has the most to do with the low attendance and blank advertising spaces on the outfield fence.

Last Tuesday night, the Pilots attracted 386 fans. It was their largest crowd of the season. But it was the wrong kind of crowd.

It was Daily Press-Times Herald Family Night. An entire family could gain admittance for $5, and there was no limit to the size of a family.

Of the 386 fans, 253 entered on coupons and 133 paid season ticket or single game prices.

Tull said the Pilots collected more money at the gate two days earlier when 281 fans paid regular prices.

"The family night promotion was great in that it brought people to the park," said Tull, "but we need about 600 people for promotions like that."

Tull wouldn't say it, but the promotion was a flop. A crowd of 386 paying regular prices won't keep the team in town. And a crowd of 386 on a cut-rate ticket night is no more encouraging than the average attendance of 163.

This team is leaving unless there is a sudden groundswell of support.

Acton, a New York-based literary agent and lawyer, is a businessman. When he calls the Pilots "an underperforming asset," he's talking about money, not his last-place ballclub.

When Acton bought the franchise last year for about $600,000, he bought a membership in the Carolina League. The real worth of his franchise is based on the bottom line of his financial sheet, not the team's position in the league standings.

Right now, his franchise is worth about half of what he paid. In another city, with corporate and fan support, it could be worth $1 million.

This area has managed to hold on to a franchise because the market is the largest in the Carolina League. The market size was the reason Acton bought the team.

"You have a huge market there," he said, "but it only looks good on the surface. There's a gross lack of interest."

Acton said he has received calls from representatives of close to a dozen cities who are interested in obtaining the Pilots. And he's listening.

"A lot of people have called after seeing our attendance figures," he said, "and I'm listening to everybody.

"We'll probably sit down and assess the situation over the next two weeks."

If you want to keep pro baseball in Hampton, you've been duly warned.

The situation will probably be resolved, one way of the other, this week.